Hello guys! This week we’ve been busy finishing off the last remaining things in and around the dungeon. There are still some tweaks we’d like to add, but for now the dungeon is complete and ready to be tested!

This means that at long last, it’s time to update the beta! To celebrate this new patch we’re gonna invite a bunch of new people that get to try the game out – hopefully you’re among them! :)

The beta should be uploaded before the end of the week, and invites will be sent shortly after. If you haven’t signed up for beta access yet, be sure to post a message in this thread over at Desura to have a chance of being selected!

Now, we’re also moving on with more stuff for the winter fields which we’ve shown you previously! It won’t be included in this patch, but here’s another sneak peek of what you’ll find there:

One of the secrets we’re most excited about adding to Grindea are the microbosses!

Microbosses are unique enemies that are usually related to the normal mobs in some way, but are way stronger. A tiny taste of this that’s currently in the beta is the white rabby.

He might look cute and fluffy, but he’s the #2 cause of death in the game

Most players enjoy the addition of the white rabby, but he’s not quite as interesting as we want most microbosses to be, since he has no extra moves except some tweaked base properties (more mobility, more health, more damage, more stun resistance etc).

During the past week, one of Fred’s tasks has been to create a microboss we hope will be a better example of what we want to achieve: the Frostling Leader!

The Frostling Leader will have a moveset inspired by the two regular Frostling monsters, the melee Rogue and the ranged Scoundrel. Our hope is to have it nearly as interesting to fight as a full fledged miniboss, but with way less workload regarding the visual design. A win-win situation if we ever heard of one!

As the game has grown larger, the need for a quicktravel has become more and more apparent. We’ve always planned to include such a system, and since you need it to travel back and forth to the flying temple now was the time to actually implement it!

In order to get a neat looking and functional interface for the quick travel, we also needed another detail we’ve postponed for a long time: the World Map!

At the start of the game, you can only see Startington and Pillar Mountains, but as you visit new areas the fog disappears and you can view them on your World Map. During your travels, you’ll also run into so-called Teleport Plates.

By stepping on such a plate, you’ll activate it, adding a new quicktravel node to your map! Afterwards, you can visit the map to create a teleportation field to that location.

You can’t teleport at any time, though. For example, you can’t teleport when stuck in a challenge or fighting a boss!

One of our game’s big selling points have been a lively atmosphere made possible through tons of flavor animations. In that spirit, the snowlands have been coming to life with some new NPC animations over the past week!

Santa isn’t quite santa unless he’s laughing

Scotty is shoveling an impressive amount of snow outside of his cabin

You can make the world come alive with other things than just NPCs! Squirrels, for example

Apart from this, Fred also recorded a short video explaining the role of Puzzle Skills in Secrets of Grindea!

This week, the Winterland enemies have spent some quality time in the animation workshop!

The Yeti, which still doesn’t have a proper name, have learned how to walk! We can’t wait to get this marshmallow bear walking around in the game, smashing players to left and right!

Besides our furry friend, a RPG favorite makes another appearance. The Blue Slime are a more dangerous version of their distant cousin, the Green Slime. The major things that sets them apart is the Blue Slimes ability to turn into a sharp, icicle-like shape whenever it attacks.

The Slime family tree is one of the more diverse in all of Grindea, so expect to run into one or two more relatives to these guys. They should not be taken lightly, despite their status as “n00b mobs” within most RPGs. Every breed of Slime has their own special attacks, so beware!